Updater,time attack and contests.

As we all know that the main problem with Sam and Max is that their is not enough content because alot of space in the 400Mb file is used on old recycled areas.

Why not instead make an updater which would be available 2 days before the release of the first episode. This will contain all the areas of the first episode in season 3 and non talking versions of each character kinda like a debug with a movable Sam.Which means besides minor graphical updates of old areas it would be possible to fit a lot of new content in the 400 Mb file.Whenever we download a new episode after season one we will be given files such as which episode we got and which episode we wont' to download and there would be a small update file which would only add new stuff in each episode game which wasn't available before the episode.

Their will be 2 links for more flexibility the first one minimum which would not contain Easter eggs and side missions and probably be of 300 Mb. We would then download extras which would contains Easter eggs and side missions and be 100 MB. Also by doing this telltale could offer extra content for each episode for a fee thus giving episodic games an xbox live feel.

Then their should be time attack feature with a leader board for bragging rights.

Then they should either put a special mini game in each sam and max episode or be able as a standalone download of 10 mbs with a leader board and the person who has the highest score before the worldwide release of the new sam and max episode would get a prize.

Prizes might be: Episode one (Sam and Max DVD), Episode 2 (Sam and max season 1 with case file and soundtrack), Episode 3 (Sam and Max Season2 with case file and soundtrack) Episode 4 (Sam and Max T-Shirts and caps) Episode 5 (Sam and Max effigy mound) Episode6 (First person to get season 3 with case file and soundtrack). Player with best overall score (Original first edition Sam and Max comic signed by Steve Purcell with new Sam and Max hardcover comic)

You want a high scores leaderboard for a point-n-click adventure game?!

And I can't imagine the "separate environment download" would work too well, since the environments change quite drastically from episode to episode. You'd have to download the thing five times per season, unless you expect Telltale to be able to do an entire season's worth of environment work before they release the first episode of the season. I won't say that they shouldn't make a single, full-length Sam & Max game instead of this episodic deal . . . but I will say I rather enjoy the way they've gone about business so far, and I would probably miss it if it changed in such a dramatic fashion.

In conclusion, I think you're a bit nuts. I can't say "Minigames in Sam & Max is a terrible idea! You're a madman!" because we all like the diversions to be found in the Sam & Max episodes, but I will say that turning them into entirely separate downloads makes absolutely no sense. You might as well be asking for a Sam & Max party game, ala Rayman's Raving Rabbids and Mario Party. With leaderboards, I'm sure.

Your ideas rank somewhere between "Hey guys why not have Sam and Max get drunk and race each other on snowboards in the next episode while Batman chases them" and "Why aren't you making Sam & Max for the Nintendo DS, and here's how you should do it" on the Sam & Max Idea Leaderboards. And if I'm being too insulting, I apologize. I also apologize to everyone else for feeding the troll, an expression that the creator of this topic doesn't seem to understand.

You want a high scores leaderboard for a point-n-click adventure game?!

And I can't imagine the "separate environment download" would work too well, since the environments change quite drastically from episode to episode. You'd have to download the thing five times per season, unless you expect Telltale to be able to do an entire season's worth of environment work before they release the first episode of the season. I won't say that they shouldn't make a single, full-length Sam & Max game instead of this episodic deal . . . but I will say I rather enjoy the way they've gone about business so far, and I would probably miss it if it changed in such a dramatic fashion.

In conclusion, I think you're a bit nuts. I can't say "Minigames in Sam & Max is a terrible idea! You're a madman!" because we all like the diversions to be found in the Sam & Max episodes, but I will say that turning them into entirely separate downloads makes absolutely no sense. You might as well be asking for a Sam & Max party game, ala Rayman's Raving Rabbids and Mario Party. With leaderboards, I'm sure.

Your ideas rank somewhere between "Hey guys why not have Sam and Max get drunk and race each other on snowboards in the next episode while Batman chases them" and "Why aren't you making Sam & Max for the Nintendo DS, and here's how you should do it" on the Sam & Max Idea Leaderboards. And if I'm being too insulting, I apologize. I also apologize to everyone else for feeding the troll, an expression that the creator of this topic doesn't seem to understand.

So let me get this straight you rather download those 100mb files in which their is a lot of recycled environment or have an updater. Since most of the old environments in new episode have little or no new enchantments. I mean Sam and Max travel by car and don't have roads. It just adding new areas link in the car each episode.Episodic games need to grow up like spore as in they should have a lot of game play and content.

So let me get this straight you rather download those 100mb files in which their is a lot of recycled environment or have an updater. Since most of the old environments in new episode have little or no new enchantments. I mean Sam and Max travel by car and don't have roads. It just adding new areas link in the car each episode.Episodic games need to grow up like spore as in they should have a lot of game play and content.

So would you prefer the environments to have no differences at all in each episode instead of "little or none"? Because that's what you're implying. If there are any differences --and there almost always are -- then they need to be downloaded again. There might be some way to "merge the changes" in, and then have some sort of fancy code where it's changed in episode 2 but not in episode 1... but that sounds way, way more complicated than simply keeping the 100MB download size.

So let me get this straight you rather download those 100mb files in which their is a lot of recycled environment or have an updater. Since most of the old environments in new episode have little or no new enchantments. I mean Sam and Max travel by car and don't have roads. It just adding new areas link in the car each episode.Episodic games need to grow up like spore as in they should have a lot of game play and content.

Though the idea of updating may sound appealing, it could possibly cause more questions than it answers so to speak.

Okay, lets say we have a season subscriber. Well that's easy, he's already going to have all of the files so having smaller updates would work fine. However, what if there's a customer that happens upon the site and decides to buy episode 2 without having episode 1. Simple enough solution, just offer a "full download" version of each game with the option an update for those who own previous games. Problem solved. . .

But what if someone buys episode 1, loses interest in episodes 2 and 3, but buys episode 4 which makes use of some environment introduced in episode 2? According to your argument, he already has the files from episode 1, so why should he have to redownload those? But he still needs the environment from episode 2 so a completely different update file needs to be made.

It would just make everything way too complicated and would make each episode dependant on every other one which goes against the concept of episodic gaming. Each episode is it's own self-contained game. You need to stop looking at it as one big game that is released in 5 parts and start looking at it was 5 separate games released in close proximity of each other. Each one isn’t that large and takes just minutes to download. Why make it more complicated than it needs to be. Besides, complication = more time = more resources = possibly a higher price for the customer. I'm happy with the system the way it is right now.

Can't help but feed the TROLL. First of all the idea of a console war based of controllers is ridiculous. Second despite any difference in control scheme the reason consoles appeal to possibly a larger audience than PC is due to the fact there is no need to upgrade them. You buy them you hook them up and any game made for it can be played on it. That sadly is not the case with PC's. While the games get better so does the machine needed to run it.

This, and Priacy are the main problems of PC gaming(and the reason why Crysis didn't sell well), developers are getting annoyed and stop making PC exclusive or porting the game on to PC.

I quite like Tom's idea of an updater, you can download a game engine with no content in it, and you just need to download contents of the episode to play it.But I often delete the episode after I play through it one or two times anyway(I blame the size of my steam folder), and there's also problem of Priacy made easy and making installing and vertifying a lot more complicated.

However, this is a pretty nice idea, but it would work better if the game is over a gig or everyone is still using 56K internet.

@ goalsiel: one thing, though... the engine is usually the smallest part of the game, all it does is interpret commands, no more than a super-complicated if-then list. Media Files are the real killer. Think about this, each area has, lets say 1 mp3, an mp3 is usually areound 4mb in size, so for 20 areas, that's 40mb. Then each soundbyte is probably 200kb (.2mb) so if there are 1000 bytes, that's another 20mb (and there are probably around 3000 in most of these games. Movie files, like opening/ending and cutscenes, are anywhere from 50mb each to over 100mb each, depending on quality and format.

Then, after that is all the code for the game itself, Databases (database of items, database of characters, characcter lines DB, etc), and the code that strings this all together (which in and of itself is probably close to 30mb, just because of the sheer number of items/lines/etc that interact.

The only reason they're able to keep the filesize reasonable is nothing in the game is high-res, including movies. IF they made these photo-realistic, then teh size woudl skyrocket to several gb per episode!

Most of what you download _IS_ exclusive to each episode. Yes, you could download some basic sound effects like doors and gunshots, and some animatics like Sam and Max themselves, but the vast majority of it is still unique. This is why an updater would be mroe trouble than it's worth - you're only removing 50 mb or less from the download.

@ goalsiel: one thing, though... the engine is usually the smallest part of the game, all it does is interpret commands, no more than a super-complicated if-then list. Media Files are the real killer. Think about this, each area has, lets say 1 mp3, an mp3 is usually areound 4mb in size, so for 20 areas, that's 40mb. Then each soundbyte is probably 200kb (.2mb) so if there are 1000 bytes, that's another 20mb (and there are probably around 3000 in most of these games. Movie files, like opening/ending and cutscenes, are anywhere from 50mb each to over 100mb each, depending on quality and format.

The general idea of what you said is right, but two points:

I can only assume they use something more efficient than MP3 for the music; OGG at the very least. That probably cuts the songs down to about 2 MB each at most. (The quality wouldn't be as high as a 128 kbps MP3, but it would sound just about as good when there's plenty of other stuff going on, and it wouldn't be all watery-sounding like an equally compressed MP3 would.)

As for "movie files", there really aren't many of those, are there? Almost everything is rendered in the engine. I can't recall any Psychonauts-esque jarring cuts to blurry 4:3 FMVs... The only thing that springs to mind is the special credits of the season finales; I don't remember, but they may have had a few video clips in them. Otherwise, they don't seem to use many of those, if any.

The opening and ending were obviously aniamtion, unless T3 has some really bizarre settings that were invoked... but you are right, they they are "movies" they were probably rendered wihtint eh engine and may not even have been seperate files at all...

And true, no need for high-quality MP3s for the dialog, though soem of the backgroudn music... and yes, otehr formats do offer mroe opertuntiy to cut the size, Atleast they didn't use raw waveforms, that would have made each game several GB lol